


Lost in the Echo

by Rabdom



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-02
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-04 11:24:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5332406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rabdom/pseuds/Rabdom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-Mercy Ending, in which Frisk decides to return to the over world instead of staying with their friends underground and what occurs afterwards.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've seen a lot of fics depicting what would happen after Frisk decides to return home instead of staying with his new found family. I've seen a lot of fics with this, as well as ones where everyone gets to live in the upper world directly after the Mercy run through. However, this is my take on what would have happened had Frisk left and the barrier was not yet taken down. I plan on making this a chapter story, so long as reviews are good. I hope everyone enjoys the first chapter (although I think I should be redoing it soon, because let's face it, it sucks).
> 
> I also have to apologize for the madness that is the first chapter. It's mostly for information, so you kind of know what's going on in later chapters.

It was dark when they finally emerged from the mouth of the cave; stars hanging brightly in the night sky. They couldn't help but pause at the sight of the night sky, of the few clouds that brushed eagerly past them; it had been, what, three or four months? So long in child years, that they were ecstatic in seeing the stars again - _real_ stars. Not the ones the monsters dubbed as stars. It was after a hesitant moment that the human finally pushed forward, the cold air breaking them from their star gazing.

It must have been fall now, or sometime close to winter. The monsters did not have much of a reliable method to tell time, making the small human unsure of how much time had really passed. Leaves crunched beneath small feet, tennis shoes catching on fallen branches every now and then. They made a mental note to ask for new shoes when they got home. That is, if their parents weren't already disgruntled with the fact that they had been gone for months. Becoming friends with monsters that lived underground would be a hard story to tell; at least, a story that would have a hard time being believed by others.

The moon rose high as the child stumbled further from the mountain and towards civilization - or to where they thought civilization might be. It was hard to recall now, what with what they had gone through in the last few months. Luckily, they need not worry for too long; lights began to shimmer from elsewhere in the forest and, intrigued, the human child stopped, listening intently for any noise that might be helpful.

Almost as instantly as the child stopped, a light flashed by them, causing them to jump. There came a call from where the light had came from, and the light came back -- this time, landing directly on the small child; tattered clothes blowing in the wind as the child raised an arm to block the light from their face.  
"Hey, is that a kid?" came a man's voice as the light began to grow brighter.

"Yeah, I think it is!" said another as the footsteps began to grow louder. "Hey kid, what the hell're you doing all the way out here?"

"They look like their hurt," said a third voice, this one feminine. "We should see if they're alright."

The lights were directed towards the ground, and the child could make out the figures now; two were grown men, both bearing rifles, while the third was a woman without a weapon. It was easy to tell why they were wandering around in the woods near the mountain, what with their cameo get-ups and looking well-dressed for the season. The child stood stock still as the three approached, the woman looking rather concerned.

"What are you doing all the way out here, sweetheart?" the woman asked,, more kindly than the man, as she dared walk closer to the child as her companions held back a few feet. "Where's your jacket? You shouldn't be walking around in this weather without on- My god, what happened to your clothes?"

A flashlight held by one of the men shined on the child once more, revealing their tattered clothing to the adults. The woman, who could have been no older than twenty five, knelt beside the child with a worried expression as the flashlight went down again.

"Hey," said one of the men (presumably the one that spoke second), "isn't that the kid that went missing a few months back?"

"Missing?" the child managed to croak out, half shivering as another gust of wind swept by. The woman, without much hesitation, took off her own jacket and draped it across the child's shoulders as she spoke.

"Everything's gonna be alright, sweetheart," she assured. "My name's Kate. What's yours?" The child looked between the bewildered adults, before deciding to answer the question.

"F-Frisk. My name's Frisk."

"So you _are_ the one that went missing!" said the second man; the first preoccupied with withdrawing his phone and dialing something into the touch screen. "Everyone thought you'd been killed or something, kid. Where the hell have you been?"

"Oh, hush Jared!" the woman scorned, holding Frisk close for a moment - much to the child's discomfort, though they allowed it due to the confusion they felt - before reeling back and looking at Frisk intently. "Don't worry, sweetheart. Everything's gonna be fine, ok?"

The first man wandered off as the woman spoke, saying something about the police and the group finding them. Frisk's nose scrunched up for a moment as they took everything in. It was shameful to say that they hadn't really thought much of the outside world since entering that cave. All the excitement made them forget, and much had been forgotten since the start of their journey. Tears welled up at the thought; they had forgotten about home, and knew they should have called at least once. Toriell had given them a phone that worked, after all, but the thought of calling their mother or father at least once had escaped them.

"Police said the're on their way," said the first man as he wandered back to the group, phone still in hand and obviously in use. "Said we should try t' meet up where they can find us."

"There's a service road about a mile from here," said Jared, gesturing in the direction of where it should be. "That should be the easiest to get to."

"Right," said Kate, jumping to her feet after making sure the jacket Frisk was now wearing was zipped up properly, as the first man began talking on the phone again. She held out her hand to the child and said, "It's alright, we'll get you home soon. I promise."

The child looked between the adults once more, as if hesitant about going anywhere with them. It wasn't like they had been banished from the Underworld, after all; they had simply told their friends that they had other business to attend to before they could come back. Maybe their parent's would understand; maybe they could go back to visit eventually. That is, if their friends did not break the barrier beforehand.

Seeing hope, Frisk happily clasped their hand into the woman's. Kate smiled, and led the child to supposed safety with her friends.

*******

What would actually happen was nothing next to utter chaos that came as a gigantic blur to the child. The group had been met with the lights of police cars and loud voices. They were held for sometime there as the officers questioned the group that had found Frisk, a few even following the second man - Jared, right? - to where they had found the child. Frisk sat in the back of a police car some time before anyone dared questioned them; and when they did, Frisk was almost hesitant to speak.

Who would actually believe their story about meeting monsters in an underground area, fighting them, helping them and then being willingly let go? Not the police officers, it appeared, as Frisk's story changed from dueling monsters and saving an entire race from being stuck underground for an eternity to being kidnapped by a foul man looking to do harm, and escaping him sometime later; turning their stories of heroism to an imaginary world that Frisk used to escape the real world whenever Frisk needed.

Frisk would later assume, of course, that they did so under orders; that they knew something about the mountain that no one else besides Frisk did. It would make sense, but for Frisk's still young and troubled mind, it made sense that there were no monsters; that everything was nothing but a fantasy. There was no way they would accept this, of course, but the whirl of emotions as they were interrogated before being brought into town brought Frisk into some sort of shock.

Their parents wept as they were brought home -- _home_ \-- for the first time in months, and their story was retold. The local papers and news spoke of a child who eluded their captor after months of being held captive, the captor in question supposedly never caught. Frisk would later look back and become unsure as to whether or not they were really talking about them, or some other poor child who had a bad turn of events. But Frisk, being young and ever the weary, went along with this story. Frisk began to believe that perhaps that was what really happen, if only for the sake of his friends and their protection against the humans who might have wanted to harm them.

 _Friends_. Monsters they would no longer get to see because of what happened. Frisk was no longer a free child like they used to be before all of this happened; instead, they were watched closely as time progressed, their parents kinder as so their child would not think of running away again, of going back up to the mountain that had previously stole them away from the comforts of home.

Oh, if only that were possible.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe this took so long! ^^ I've kind of been busy with some real life stuff, but I didn't think I would be this busy.
> 
> Anyway, here is this chapter. I kind of wanted to do a flashback of something plus Frisk at a therapist (because let's face it, any kid would be put into therapy if they were in Frisk's situation), so here.

_It was quiet -- then again, unless you were in a town, everything in the Underground seemed quiet. Water poured endlessly around them, and for a moment they wondered if the monsters had ever thought about finding an exit through wherever the water was coming from. Or perhaps the water had only came after it had eroded the ground above, causing the liquid to spill further down into the endless depths of the Underground. The humans of the old days couldn't have known about this exit, right?_

_Frisk sighed as they looked out into the darkness, legs swinging to and fro as they hung off of the walk way. Said walkway was rather pointless. It didn't lead anywhere -- just rounded back on it self, making you turn back to find the real pathway to move forward. The only real item of interest was a lone Echo Flower that seemed rather lonely. Perhaps they could take it back to the castle, let it grow among the golden flowers of the castle. Yeah, that sounded nice._

_"heh, hey kid," came a familiar voice from behind, "kinda late tibia-t here, don't ya think?"_

_Frisk failed in holding back a giggle at the joke as the short skeleton took a spot beside them in response, looking back out into the abyss of the cavern._

_"nah, I get it," Sans snorted, taking a swig of the bottle. "kind of a pretty nice place to come to when ya need to think. i prefer lookin' at the stars myself, though."_

_Frisk frowned as Sans took another swig. Those stars -- while they were all the monsters had down here, they were nothing compared to the real stars in the overworld. Hesitantly, Frisk voiced this. Again Sans chuckled, adding a nod._

_"yeah, i heard they go on forever up there," sans agreed. "'d be nice t' see 'em for real, though. ol' paps -- he's always going on about the things h's gonna do once we get out. Seein' the stars made his top ten."_

_Frisk's frow burrowed as they looked over to the short Skeleton. Sans didn't seem to realize he was being watched, staring straight ahead as he took another swig of his ketchup as he went on._

_"aside from, ya know, cookin' spaghetti an' goin' out for a drive. you could almost say he has a need for speed."_

_Frisk laughed again, voicing how terrible the joke was as they fell against the skeleton's side. Sans chuckled as well, a rattling sound apparent from Frisk's spot._

_"yeah, guess i need t' work on my puns more, huh?"_

_Another swig from the ketchup bottle, and Sans seemed to give the inanimate object a rather disgruntled look before tossing it into the water below. Moving to rest their head against a bony shoulder, Frisk muttered something about plenty of books with puns being abundant in the surface world. Sans snorted._

_“oh boy, don’t go telling Paps,” said Sans. “he might lose his head!”_

_There was a long pause between the two before both seemed to realize the pun Sans had just made without meaning to --and then suddenly, the cavern was overflowing with the sound of laughter as both child and skeleton fell backwards, Frisk holding their stomachs it began to cramp._

_Had the overworld been like this -- full of laughter that was easy to come by, and friends who didn’t see you for what you looked like? Frisk wished it could always stay like this, wished they never had to leave and could simply laugh the day away. But good things, as a wise man once said, always come to an end._

_They had to._

*******

"Frisk? Frisk! Are you alright?"

The child jumped as they were brought back to reality. The Underworld around them morphed back into reality -- the walkway and waterfall shifting back into the therapist's office; the black abyss, a bustling city outside of a large window that overlooked it. With a deep breath, the child turned their attentions back to the woman sitting on a chair across from them, looking concerned.

Frisk assured them they were ok; that they had just spaced out.

"Are you sure?" the woman asked, looking ready to jot something down in her notes. "Would you like to talk about it."

Frisk shook their head. The woman looked rather defeated, setting her notes onto a table next her. From what Frisk could make out from the few short glances they got at it, the woman definitely thought something was terribly wrong with the child.

"You know, Frisk," the woman went on, taking off her glasses as she spoke, "I can't help you unless you tell me what's wrong. You've got talk . It's not healthy to keep yourself bottled up like this."

Frisk stared.

"Your parents are very concerned about you as well," the therapist went on. "Your mother told me you've barely said a word since you've come back. A year is a very long time not to say anything, Frisk."

Frisk shrugged, wrapping their arms around their knees and looking down.

"I know it must be hard on you, sweetheart, after everything you've been through." Her voice was much softer now, and had the woman not been respectful of Frisk's space since these sessions started, they were sure she might have crouched down next to them in some show of sympathy or understanding. “But if you really want to get better, you have to tell us what’s bothering you.”

Hesitantly, Frisk says that they just want to see their friends again -- that they just want to see the Underground one last time. The woman frowned deeply then.  
  
“Frisk, I know it might be hard for you to understand, but that place -- the Underground -- there’s no such thing. Monsters aren't real; they’re just bedtime stories parents use to make sure that their children don’t do anything they shouldn’t.”  
  
Then where could Frisk have been all that time? What about the friends they’d made? The adventures they’d had? Frisk asked this, feeling nausea and the feeling of despair rising up in their throat.

“You probably just created this Underground as a means to cope with whatever trauma you were experiencing while you were gone,” the woman sighed. “If you would open yourself up a bit more, perhaps we could find out what really happened and help you through it.”

Frisk’s gaze turned back to the window, breath shaky as they tried to collect their thoughts. The Underground was real, they knew -- but it was rather hard to get someone to believe you when authorities didn’t allow civilians so much as within shooting distance of the area where they had fell, much less inside so they could show everyone the truth.

Silence passed briefly before the therapist sighed. Sounds of shuffling were heard, before Frisk heard the woman stand.

“Our time is about up, Frisk,” she said, though she didn’t seem too pleased by the thought. “Would leaving early today make you feel better?”

Frisk nodded, slipping off of the futon as the woman escorted them to the door to where their parents were waiting -- and where a world full of people were completely oblivious to the presence of another world beneath theirs. Perhaps everyone was right, Frisk would come to think as they said farewell to the therapist and begin the journey home. Perhaps everyone was right.

Maybe they really were just crazy afterall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Loos his head'. Haha, get it? Because Papyrus is a skeleton? Eh? Eh?
> 
> ......... I'll be going now.


End file.
